Well, the majority of weight loss will happen in the kitchen via fueling your body with proper foods, and at a slight calorie reduction from your BMR. That said, aerobic exercise is fantastic for your cardiovascular system. Lifting weights can burn just as many (more in some cases) calories, but will just help fill out your body and reduce the possibility of stretch marks.

There is no miracle answer, really. You have several months to go. If you keep a stable and healthy diet, in addition to a solid exercise regime, you'll have no problem meeting your goal. Just try not to get discouraged because the weight doesn't just melt off.

It's very common to be overweight, lose said weight quickly, have excess skin and stretch marks. I only referred to this particular one because the other extreme essentially becomes a first world problem meme.

Reducing such dramatic amounts of stretch marks and loose skin during weight loss can be helped/remedied with a decent lifting regime.

As almost everyone ignored what you said completely, here is little tips and tricks:

1. Stay hydrated. There is a formula for your weight, but basically drink at least a gallon of water a day. It'll keep you hydrated which helps your metabolism stay regulated and help you burn fat.

2. Thermogenics. They help in a different way. They raise your core body temperature so that your body has to burn more calories to keep it stable. You should take them before a workout, they're completely legit and legal. You can get them at GNC or online. Do your own research though.

3. Actually follow your diet plan, some people have a diet plan and then 'cheat' in little ways, they don't realize it. They might eat a banana or an apple to stave off hunger. It's not bad, but if you have a set amount of calories and your food that is set gives those.. well, it's not good then!

4. If all else fails, buy some illegal steroids, Stanozolol is a weight loss steroid typically used for cutting (they sell it as Winstrol, refer to it as Winny, clever marketing by selling it under that name, huh?) I don't know if it's against ToS to say this, but I know some people who have used it to join the army and for general weight loss.

5. Hire a trainer or research some HIIT on your own. Do some wind sprints where there are hills. Run up and down hills. Hike. Get a stair climber. Run up and down stairs. Change up your cardio so your body has to adjust in some way, if you're running on a treadmill, you can go FASTER or you can give it some incline, or switch to an elliptical, or a bicycle. Push your body harder than you are now.

You have plenty of time, you can easily drop the weight without anything illegal or any tips/tricks. But since you asked for tips/tricks, then there are plenty out there. You can even dehydrate yourself during weigh ins like fighters do. OR, you can sign a waiver and they will most likely accept you. I don't know about the Air Force, but my brother got into the Marines 20-30 pounds over the weight limit and signed a medical waiver. Lost about 50-60 pounds by getting on their diet and fitness regime.
Of course, since they don't do any kind of muscle building with the fitness regime, he looked like crap. Had no definition, was sitting around 14% body fat and it just looked weird. That's what quick weight loss does to you. 60 pounds in 3 months.

Well first off id never get illegal substances to lose weight I can do this on my own.

Thanks for the thermogenics idea.... Might try it, and I drink a good gallon + of water a day.

I dont hold myself to any true strict diet I just stay around 2k calories a day. Once this weeks paycheck comes in I am getting a gym membership, I know from experience what to do and have a plan set in my head to do that entails roughly an hour and a half of mid to high cardio, 20 of stretching and 30 weight. Dont know if im going to do it all at once a 2 workouts a day, morning/ afternoon

Well first off id never get illegal substances to lose weight I can do this on my own.

Thanks for the thermogenics idea.... Might try it, and I drink a good gallon + of water a day.

I dont hold myself to any true strict diet I just stay around 2k calories a day. Once this weeks paycheck comes in I am getting a gym membership, I know from experience what to do and have a plan set in my head to do that entails roughly an hour and a half of mid to high cardio, 20 of stretching and 30 weight. Dont know if im going to do it all at once a 2 workouts a day, morning/ afternoon

You're going to have to get a cleaner diet. If you're planning on working out twice a day, you need to get the fuel your body needs. If you burn some calories, say you burn 1500 calories in a workout. Your body will burn about 1800-2200 in a day naturally, depending on your weight/muscle build. You should consume the fuel to burn those 1500 calories, which would be 1500 calories, and then consume a bit more to fuel the rest of your day.

To clarify: Your body will need the fuel to keep going. You can consume empty calories and hit 2k OR you can consume nutrient dense calories, such as avocado for fats. Instead of buying chicken in a bag that's already cut/fried or anything, buy the chicken from a meat market or a butcher shop (same thing). Buy your poultry and meats and fish from a fresh source. Buy your veggies and make them fresh. Eat more veggies!

This information was not meant towards you, you said you were a registered dietitian. I pay attention.
But working out twice a day, you definitely will need to set yourself on a strict diet. 20 pounds will be easy to drop with only one hour workout a day and eating properly.
You could drop 10 pounds if you juice for 10 days. (Juice as in veggie juice, not roids) It's a little trick I saw in a documentary called "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead". Crazy amounts of weight dropped by juicing and they got healthy. It's all about being healthy. Don't kill yourself to lose this weight. You have plenty of time.

You're going to have to get a cleaner diet. If you're planning on working out twice a day, you need to get the fuel your body needs. If you burn some calories, say you burn 1500 calories in a workout. Your body will burn about 1800-2200 in a day naturally, depending on your weight/muscle build. You should consume the fuel to burn those 1500 calories, which would be 1500 calories, and then consume a bit more to fuel the rest of your day.

To clarify: Your body will need the fuel to keep going. You can consume empty calories and hit 2k OR you can consume nutrient dense calories, such as avocado for fats. Instead of buying chicken in a bag that's already cut/fried or anything, buy the chicken from a meat market or a butcher shop (same thing). Buy your poultry and meats and fish from a fresh source. Buy your veggies and make them fresh. Eat more veggies!

This information was not meant towards you, you said you were a registered dietitian. I pay attention.
But working out twice a day, you definitely will need to set yourself on a strict diet. 20 pounds will be easy to drop with only one hour workout a day and eating properly. You could drop 10 pounds if you juice for 10 days. (Juice as in veggie juice, not roids) It's a little trick I saw in a documentary called "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead". Crazy amounts of weight dropped by juicing and they got healthy. It's all about being healthy. Don't kill yourself to lose this weight. You have plenty of time.

Its not really healthy dropping weight that quick and barelly getting any calories though

Its not really healthy dropping weight that quick and barelly getting any calories though

What it really does is clean out the junk from your body. It's pretty cool how it works. But, if you haven't seen that documentary, you should. It's not about going in starvation mode, your body gets ALL the nutrients it needs and you can drink as much of the juice as you want, you get full off of it. It tastes pretty good too once you get the salt/sugar out o your mouth.

What it really does is clean out the junk from your body. It's pretty cool how it works. But, if you haven't seen that documentary, you should. It's not about going in starvation mode, your body gets ALL the nutrients it needs and you can drink as much of the juice as you want, you get full off of it. It tastes pretty good too once you get the salt/sugar out o your mouth.

Ive seen it.
And there is no such thing as starvation mode, thats a myth.

My plan:
1500 calories per day
drinking ~4 liters of water per day
45 minutes sports per day (one day jogging, next day muscular endurance training, jogging, etc, one day rest per week)

By the way, I hate gyms, I can't stand those holiday rep fitness trainers, one even recommended me to do only muscular training & to drink protein shakes after training to lose weight, LOL

To be fair, technically, that WOULD work.. It's just not the best idea.
Trust your instincts though, you have a decent exercise regimen going. The only tweak I would do to it is make it 60 minutes per day, warm ups and stretching for 15 minutes of that hour.
Make sure those 1500 calories are nutrient dense and not empty calories!

Well, it might sound a bit nasty, but have you thought of drinking the bacterica/yeast called Kefir? I know it sounds completely horrible, and I gagged the first time I got the suggestion from a friend of mine, but it's just as drinking a little sour natural yoghurt. I drank 5-6 glasses a day (also loads of water), and in the morning I poured up a little bowl and just put on some cereal on it and it gave me sufficient energy to cope with the day, even in/after the gym.
I was on an all Kefir diet for 2 weeks and the kilos were just shedding off me like crazy (lost 12 kilos (26.4 lbs) in 2 weeks , and even when I went back to eating normal (and of course healthy) food, I didn't regain anything. In fact I'm still just losing weight.

You can usually buy the Kefir itself in "special" stores, maybe even health shops, but you'd have to check around in your local shops to find it.
You basically boil some milk (pref. low fat), let it cool down a little till you can put a finger in it without burning yourself, put the kefir into the milk (in a glass jar with a lid), let it stand outside the fridge for around 10-15 hours (in the dark, and the lid a little open so it can breathe) and then you put it back to the fridge so it can get cold. And then you basically have the finished product. It's super easy once you get the hang of it, and even when there's just a little left in the jar, you boil up a new portion of milk, let it cool down then you just put the milk into the leftovers of the kefir, and the bacteria will reproduce again

You can also order pre-made Kefir online, but I'd suggest you buy the yeast/bacteria yourself and produce your own.
And I also think that this diet is unpopular, because you get soooo sick of drinking that stuff in the end. That's why I only do 2 weeks at a time, 4 weeks with normal food, and then another 2 weeks on the Kefir. It works like a charm for me, and I even got other irl friends that are on it atm, and they're enjoying their weightloss, even the ones that have desk jobs and don't go to the gym.

Just walk 1 hour every day, you don't even need to jog, go to the gym etc. Walking is one of the best things you can do for your cardio. Jogging elevates your hart rate way above what's considered needed for cardio and is way, way more tiring. I guess if you enjoy it do it but if you walk 1 hour every day which even a lot of the most unfit people can do you'll be speeding up your metabolism in no time.

Apart from that drink at the very least 4 liters of water every day (so every time you pee its CLEAR) I my self drink around 5-6 liters every day. Get enough sleep (ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS!) around 8 hours minimum I'd say, I currently sleep 10 hours every day. Go to bed early to get that much sleep, if watching a movie or playing a game is more important for you than losing weight/getting healthy than you're doing it wrong.

I'd have another huge thing which I'd usually recommend but that would probably get me flamed in a place like this so I'm not even going to bother with the last one.

And stay away from all these random product recommendations people give, you don't need supplements or diet fads to lose weight. Those kind of things do more harm to you in the long run than what the short term effects are worth.

Just walk 1 hour every day, you don't even need to jog, go to the gym etc. Walking is one of the best things you can do for your cardio. Jogging elevates your hart rate way above what's considered needed for cardio and is way, way more tiring. I guess if you enjoy it do it but if you walk 1 hour every day which even a lot of the most unfit people can do you'll be speeding up your metabolism in no time.

Apart from that drink at the very least 4 liters of water every day (so every time you pee its CLEAR) I my self drink around 5-6 liters every day. Get enough sleep (ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS!) around 8 hours minimum I'd say, I currently sleep 10 hours every day. Go to bed early to get that much sleep, if watching a movie or playing a game is more important for you than losing weight/getting healthy than you're doing it wrong.

I'd have another huge thing which I'd usually recommend but that would probably get me flamed in a place like this so I'm not even going to bother with the last one.

And stay away from all these random product recommendations people give, you don't need supplements or diet fads to lose weight. Those kind of things do more harm to you in the long run than what the short term effects are worth.

8 hours minimum isnt required, but its good.
You can get away with 6-7 hours.
10 hours is too much though, there is too much rest aswell as too little.

8 hours minimum isnt required, but its good.
You can get away with 6-7 hours.
10 hours is too much though, there is too much rest aswell as too little.

No, there isn't too much rest unless you're going into like over 12 hours (which would still not really have any negative impications on your body). I went 5 months of geting 7 hours of sleep when I first started aiming to get to around 7-8% body fat and after that I started resting 10 hours every day and not only was I losing weight far faster I was feeling 100x better throughout the day.

I do love it when people say 10 hours is too much though, it makes me laugh every single time. At 7 hours of sleep I still had the balck marks under my eyes (don't know what you call them in english), once I started actually getting enough sleep they were completely gone. Clearly getting too much with 10 hours tho.

Hey man. i'm joining the air force as well. I used to be 200lbs at my worst point. Couldn't even do 10 pushups. Now, 6 months later I'm at 150 lbs and 70 pushups.

Basically, you don't have to do some crazy workout. For me, couch to 5k (3x a week) and then 100pushups/200situps on the other 3x a week. Sunday is rest day.
Radux got it 100% right. get a stable diet and a solid exercise regime. The key is not to kill yourself with some insane workout, but to find something that you can get used to doing routinely, without skipping any exercises and without getting too stressed or depressed. I didn't need cheat days, I didn't need offdays from working out. I just got used to it and time flies by. It's not that bad.

That and get on a serious cut. I just eat from 12pm to 8pm and no sugar, just water and coffee (black). coffee is nice 'cause it suppresses my appetite and gives me energy/motivates me to go run or do workouts. Just make sure you don't get addicted to it like I did...

Hey man. i'm joining the air force as well. I used to be 200lbs at my worst point. Couldn't even do 10 pushups. Now, 6 months later I'm at 150 lbs and 70 pushups.

Basically, you don't have to do some crazy workout. For me, couch to 5k (3x a week) and then 100pushups/200situps on the other 3x a week. Sunday is rest day.
Radux got it 100% right. get a stable diet and a solid exercise regime. The key is not to kill yourself with some insane workout, but to find something that you can get used to doing routinely, without skipping any exercises and without getting too stressed or depressed. I didn't need cheat days, I didn't need offdays from working out. I just got used to it and time flies by. It's not that bad.

That and get on a serious cut. I just eat from 12pm to 8pm and no sugar, just water and coffee (black). coffee is nice 'cause it suppresses my appetite and gives me energy/motivates me to go run or do workouts. Just make sure you don't get addicted to it like I did...

Well at my worst five years ago out of high school I was nearly 300 now I'm down to 220 ish. Thanks for all the ideas and that juice thin sounds interesting, it basically sounds like a liquid detox. And it's to late on the coffee addiction.

AlsO there is a such thing as getting to much sleep If I get more then 8 a day I feel more tired and sluggish. It just depends person to person

Ignore the gimic diets. Ive lost 50 lbs since October 1st, 2012. I lift 3x a week (absolutely zero cardio) but the biggest dent in my weight loss was calculating my BMR, and then making sure I was a 500-600 caloric deficit. I generally eat low carbs and no sugar, but sometimes I can pack away as much junk as I want as long as im operating at a deficit. Its really just that simple.